Utopia: Thomas More [Paperback]

Thomas More (Author), Professor Clarence H. Miller (Translator)

Book Description

Series: Yale Nota Bene | Publication Date: March 1, 2001

First published in 1516, Saint Thomas More's Utopia is one of the most important works of European humanism. Through the voice of the mysterious traveller Raphael Hythloday, More describes a pagan, communist city-state governed by reason. Addressing such issues as religious pluralism, women's rights, state-sponsored education, colonialism, and justified warfare, Utopia seems remarkably contemporary nearly five centuries after it was written, and it remains a foundational text in philosophy and political theory. Precminent More scholar Clarence H. Miller does justice to the full range of More's rhetoric in this new translation. Professor Miller includes a helpful introduction that outlines some of the important problems and issues that Utopia raises, and also provides informative commentary to assist the reader throughout this challenging and rewarding exploration of the meaning of political community.

Editorial Reviews

Review

"Clarence Miller has made a lively and accurate translation which preserves the subtlety and wit of More's own Latin. Fluent and highly readable, this new version should be welcomed by all admirers of the Utopia." Louis Martz, Yale University "What Clarence Miller attempts - and accomplishes - here is a nuanced and textured rendition in English that says neither less nor more than the Latin itself." Daniel Kinney, University of Virginia"

Language Notes

Text: English (translation)
Original Language: Latin --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

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Product Details

• Paperback: 208 pages
• Publisher: Yale University Press (March 1, 2001)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0300084293
• ISBN-13: 978-0300084290
• Product Dimensions: 7.8 x 5.1 x 0.5 inches
• Shipping Weight: 7.8 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.1 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (22 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #11,773 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
  • #2 in Books > 4-for-3 Books > Nonfiction > Philosophy > Consciousness & Thought
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  • #3 in Books > 4-for-3 Books > Nonfiction > Politics > Ideologies > Communism & Socialism

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

65 of 65 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars This book is where the term 'Utopia' comes from, September 7, 2010

By 

Jeffrey Van Wagoner (Gilbert, AZ USA) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Utopia (Kindle Edition)

This book has been on my reading list for a while, and I finally grabbed a copy to read when I got my Kindle. Thomas More, as well as many other famous men, put to writing a vision of the ideal society. As with most visions of the ideal society, he had some good ideas that were eventually put in place, but he also had many impractical ideas that won't work just due to the nature of man. It was also interesting to see that he came from an era that accepted several social mores such as slavery that today we find unacceptable and were deemed good institutions in his ideal society.

I think my favorite part was the method the Utopians used to minimize the importance of gold, fine apparel, and money. Gold and jewelry were considered baubles only interesting to children. They marked their slaves by bedecking them with gold. He related a story of a foreign ambassador coming to visit the Utopians. They mistook the gold bedecked ambassador as the slave and the plainly clothed slave as the ambassador and treated each as such.

I highly recommend this relatively short book as a glance into how people in the Middle Ages viewed the ideal society and also as a legitimate look at ongoing social problems. More highlights pride as one of the biggest problems facing society. It appears to be a continuing issue.

28 of 31 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Comparing editions, September 19, 2004

By 

Thad Curtz (Olympia, WA USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Utopia: Thomas More (Paperback)

The Yale edition (Miller's translation - $6.95) gives a bare list of events in More's life, but the short introduction mostly focuses on the syntax and rhetoric of the book; there's very little in it about the social and historical background. It omits the commendatory letters from various humanists, but includes both the opening letter to Giles from More, and the postscript letter to Giles from the 1517 edition (but not the Busleyden letter about Utopia as a real place that prompted it). (It also has the 1518 woodcut map of Utopia.) The sidenotes that Miller thinks are not mere section markers are placed in the footnotes.

The Hackett edition (Wooton's translation - also $6.95) has a pointed persuasively argued introduction focusing on the translator's own interpretation of the work; he relates it to More's life and the paradoxical double vision of Christian piety and ordinary social life also found in More's friend Erasmus's "The Sileni of Alicbiades," which is included. This edition puts the sidenotes in the margins, and also includes all the introductory and appended material by others, the 1516 map, the Utopian alphabet and the garden woodcut, and black and white illustrations of portraits of More, Erasmus and Gilles.

I haven't seen the other options.

28 of 32 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Utopia is acclaimed all by itself, February 16, 2010

By 

Jessss "Euchella" (Mountain) - See all my reviews

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This review is from: Utopia (Kindle Edition)

The work begins with written correspondence between Thomas More and several people he had met on the continent: Peter Giles, town clerk of Antwerp, and Jerome Busleiden, counselor to Charles V. More chose these letters, which are communications between actual people, to further the plausibility of his fictional land. In the same spirit, these letters also include a specimen of the Utopian alphabet and its poetry. It is a great book that allows one to think about human nature. Utopia itself is an imaginary place that is nonexistent. Many have wondered over the years why More even wrote it. I forces one to consider that if the government of a place allows circumstances to occur that remove mans ability to take care of basic needs on a just and right way, should they be punished when they achieve it by breaking their laws?